Sea Day 1 of 3

Good morning everyone. We are safely and healthily floating off the coast of western Africa. We have four more ports on the continent of Africa as we venture closer to the equator. I started my morning up early. Which is always easiest after we rolled the clocks back an hour. Surprisingly, Megan was up with me at 5:30am this morning. I went off to the gym and she went off to help the Project Linus team to set up the blankets that have been completed to date for a huge on ship display. After my workout I headed out to the Lido deck to help out with the rest of the set up. Then Megan and I went to the Pinnacle for breakfast. There are still restrictions in place and basically everything has to be served everywhere on the ship. Someone puts my sugar in my tea for me, salt and pepper come in small ramekins, and bread and butter is served not placed on the table. Then we headed back to the Lido. From 9-11:30 there was a silent auction of blankets going on for all the passengers on the ship. One passenger had completed 20 blankets during COVID that she donated for sale to help raise money for more yarn for the organization. We were lucky enough to win a couple of them. We are happy to write a check to this wonderful couple, Gail and Marty, for their endeavors for this fantastic organization. I’m happy to know that there will be passengers crocheting away next year on the world cruise with yarn that we helped to contribute to. After the auction was over and the 400 ish blankets were packed backed up and put away (don’t miss those photos below) we headed back to our cabin and slipped on our bathing suits to relax after our busy morning. I found a chair in the sun, cracked open my book, cuddled into my lounge chair and then they closed the retractable roof overhead. Not five minutes later, it started to rain outside. It was a pineapple shower and it passed quickly but it was a damper on my sun time. Megan had tutoring at 12:30pm today and I went to the acupuncturist from 2-3pm. We met back at the cabin around 3pm. I went out on my balcony and enjoyed a little more time in the sun and got a chance to catch up with mom back at home. Megan read. We had dinner in the main dining room at 5:00pm and we were home and in a PJ’s by 7:00pm. It was a long day. And an early one for Megan. She was asleep before I was. Doesn’t happen very often and I find it amusing when she does.

I have to share a little story. The other day when we went to Walvis Bay we had an excursion seal watching out of the boat. After our last boat adventures when we got soaked and it was very cold, I decided to take my winter coat with me that I had brought for home. While we were out on the sea I slipped my hand into my pocket and found my house key. I had not worn that jacket since January when we traveled to Florida to begin this journey and it was unreal to think that back at home they are dealing with rain and record snowfall and under any other circumstance I would be wearing that jacket daily. But it took me 75 days to put it on here. We have been chasing summer all winter and it will be almost summer when we return. I miss being at home and it has been a doozy of a winter back in CA. I have felt helpless many times to not being there to help out, problem solve and pitch in. I have contemplated heading home early several times but I have stuck to my resolve to finish this trip. I know everyone at home is fully capable of handling things and I am here to love and support everyone through it all. Speaking of finishing this trip….on this date in 2020 we stepped off the world cruise and ended our adventure. So we are now officially on the longest cruise we have ever been on!

Enjoy the photos of Megan holding up some of our completed blankets, the displayed blankets on the Lido deck and a few photos we took last night.

Luanda, Angola

Isolation freedom. We were cleared for take off at 7:30 this morning. Enough time to finish up our breakfast and meet our excursion group at the Main Stage at 8:00am. We had a small group of 11 passengers on our trip today. I was not 100% comfortable with our safety situation today and I really had hoped a member of the shore excursion department would have accompanied us, but they said because of the currently health status on our ship they were not allowed to get off with us today. We visited the San Miguel Fort and got see the history of the military uprisings, civil wars and governmental upheavals here in Angola. The president’s home and the homes of other dignitaries are within a short distance from the Fort and therefore it is still pretty actively used by the military. We saw many officers at the Fort. Next, we went to Augustino Nieto Mausoleum. He was the first president of Angola and he is remembered very fondly by the people. His sarcophagus if here and it a beautiful building shaped like a rocket on the outside and inside it looks like a flower. This building was built in memory of Nieto and a museum of the people of Angola. We actually got to stand in the area that President stood and stands to make public appearances before his constituents. There is also a second area that is going to opened here shortly with the sarcophagus of the second president of Angola who just passed away last year. We also saw the domed parliament building that was quite grand in stature. Next, we drove through a part of town that will forever be in bedded to my memory. The amount of poverty and trash we saw was so sad. Luanda is supposedly one of the richest countries in the world due to the amount of oil produced here, but there is a very large percentage of the country that doesn’t even have access to clean drinking water. Where the funds are all going is your guess. It was difficult to see people living this way and it was a reminder to appreciate what we are blessed with. Our next stop was the Mussulo Pier for a crossing to the Mussulo Island. We boarded our boat just as it was starting to rain. We were pelted by raindrops as we made our way to the island and it stopped raining as we arrived. We arrived at Dally’s Resort on Mussulo Island around 11:00am. They seemed surprised we had arrived as early as we did and told us they weren’t prepared to serve us lunch until 1:00pm. So Megan and I made our way to the pool and spent the afternoon relaxing, sunning ourselves, and trying to stay cool from the 90+ degree weather we are having today. We are making our way back towards the equator and we will be crossing it for the second time of this voyage on Friday. We will be doing a King Neptune’s Ceremony. I have not had the opportunity to participate in one thanks to COVID in 2020 and I am looking forward to my first one ever. This being my third equator crossing. This will be special as it is my understanding is we are crossing at the Prime Meridian making us “Golden Shellbacks”. But that is TBD. We had a nice seafood lunch on the island around 1:00pm. We are still being really careful about what we eat so we opted for simple and only cooked foods that we knew. We took the boat back across to the pier around 3:15pm. We hopped back on the bus and took the ride back to the ship. I have never felt so happy to step back on the ship. There were a couple of times today I feared for our safety and well being and I was happy to back home. One of the weirdest things about today was that people kept continuously taking our photo all day. Police officers, officials, our tour guides, it made us uncomfortable. It was described to me that we are a novelty here due to the color of our skin, but we didn’t care for it very much. I allowed Megan to stand behind me as often as possible. We made it to the main dining room tonight for our 5:00pm seating. It was nice seeing Umam and Regy for the first time in a while. The dining room was noticeably empty tonight. I am guessing due to the number of ill passengers. It gave us a great chance to talk to the crew and catch up on what they have been doing the last few days. We were supposed to sail away at 4:30pm but we were delayed almost two hours due to a medical emergency that necessitated them to remove a passenger from the ship and to have them taken to the hospital via ambulance. I hope that passenger is ok and gets quality care while they are here. We arrived back to our cabin to find a notice reminding us of a time change tonight, we are rolling our clocks back another hour. Putting us 7 hours ahead of CA time. We also we informed our excursion at our nest port has been cancelled. We were supposed to visit a school for the blind and deaf and had been preparing goodies to take to the school for the students. We are very disappointed as we were going there to work, to complete community service projects like painting and to love on the children. We are disappointed we will miss the opportunity. So many ups and down today. But ultimately we are so happy to have been allowed out of cabins, that we are feeling better, and that we have many more adventures ahead of us. Sweet dreams all!!

Sea Day 2 of 2 – ISOLATION

Yes, we are still stuck in our cabin today. We are feeling better this morning, not 100% yet but the cramping has lessened and we wanted something to eat this morning so that’s a good sign. We had an early morning visit from medical and she told us we had to stay in another day. So we ordered room service scrambled eggs, toast and bananas to see how we could handle it. We’re still drinking our Gatorade we brought on board and feel hydrate so that’s a good thing. We are stir crazy already and I am grateful we have balcony and the weather is warm. Around 9:00am we had two room stewards accompanied by an officer to clear and sterile our room. Not our normal stewards and they we wearing masks, gloves and plastic aprons. Feel like a floating disease but it is what it is. There have now been numerous announcements, flyers distributed and posts on facebook about a possible Norovirus outbreak on the ship. Basic changes like no more salt and pepper shakers on the tables, not more bread baskets on the tables, and increased sanitation around the common areas of the ship. Everyone has been strongly encouraged to increase the amount of hand washing we are doing and to minimize our use of public restrooms of possible. I don’t know the numbers of affected passengers but the medical team looks ragged and overworked this morning. They said our medical history and list of our medications was the easiest one she had done all day. LOL!! So we sit in our cabin watching movies, hydrating and walking around in circles. Sadly 24+ hours in bed have seemed to aggravate my back injury again, but not to the extent that it started at last time. So I will be taking it easy again when we are all cleared. I did get a chance to finish my project Linus blanket today. We ordered chicken and gnocchi for dinner tonight and asked for more water to be brought to us. The bottled water we are currently getting in the cabin tastes weird to us. And even though we are adding Gatorade packets, it is nice to have some “plain” water to drink. We may be isolated and stuck in our cabin, but we have a balcony and we got a beautiful sunset this evening. Around 9:00pm medical called and told me since I had no new “episodes” in 24 hours I was officially cleared from isolation. I want to go out and run around the ship, but I am already in my pajamas and too tired. We suspect Megan will be cleared tomorrow around 7:30am and that will clear us for our 8:00am excursion. We put our breakfast room service order on the door since we will have to have eaten in time to make it to the Main Stage and Megan can’t officially leave yet. We heard lots of rumors and speculations to the cause of our mysterious illness; a poop covered pier in Walvis Bay that we had to both walk through and that they were sweeping when we got off the ship, a large group of children from a third world country brought onto the ship with NO covid tests required (this one actually really makes me angry and I will be expressing my upset about this one to the powers that be) and a suspected tainting of our corned beef on Saint Patrick’s Day. The rumor mills are working over time. Regardless of the cause we are enduring the consequences and hope that anyone and everyone affected recovers quickly and easily. Off to bed and hoping to be green lighted for a cabin exit in the morning. Alarm is going off at 7:00am. Hugs.

Sea Day 1 of 2 – ISOLATION!

Oh yes, you ready that correctly. Hello, from the land of isolation. Megan and I were awake at 3:30am this morning with the worst stomach cramps I have ever experienced. Our stomachs were less than happy and we definitely thought we had food poisoning. We regretted the raw oysters and thought we had made a travelers faux pas. We decided we did not feel up to going anywhere today. We stayed in, hydrating, taking antibiotics we came on board with, and trying to settle our tummies. Around 2:30pm we decide we should probably reach out to medical and report what symptoms we were experiencing and that is when we learned we were not alone. There is definitely something running through the ship. We awaiting our visit from medical and had to complete forms for the CDC with everything we’ve eaten and drank in the last three days, we had to complete COVID test (we were negative), had our temps and pulse oxygen levels checked (both normal), and we were given specimen containers for samples to be collected. We were also told we were mandated to isolation. We had self isolated all day already so we just have to continue what we are doing. Movies, rest, showers, and medicine was the routine for the rest of our day. We ordered some dinner around 5:00pm and decided we needed to get something in our stomachs so we ordered steamed rice and plain baked chicken. We barely ate any of it but enough so we could take some more Tylenol for the discomfort. I have had tummy illnesses before, but I will say this thing kicked our asses. The pain and and cramps we experienced were not easy to get through at all. I feel absolutely horrible for any other passengers on the ship going through this. There was a medical emergency announced over head around 6:30pm last night and I don’t know if it was related. We were asleep shortly after that. Let’s see what tomorrow holds for us. Fingers crossed we feel better.

Walvis Bay, Namibia

This morning we awoke as we were pulling into Walvis Bay. It is cloudy and overcast so we will have to make sure we dress warmly for our excursion today. I woke up about 6:30 am and went to the gym. Megan met me at the Pinnacle Grill and we had a lovely breakfast together. After breakfast we decided to see if we could switch our excursion from an afternoon to the morning one and we were. So we had a quick change and bundled up so we could head off the ship in time to meet our group. We walked up the pier to meet our transport that took us right around the way to the Walvis Bay Yacht Club. We hopped onto a boat for a scenic cruise around the Walvis Bay. We started our day on the speed boat, but they decided that the two boats weren’t balanced enough in the numbers so Megan and I volunteered for and got to do a mid trip transfer to the catamaran. Good to be young and healthy. We got to see many Cape Brown Seals, Molamola fish, Pelicans and Heaviside Dolphin. The seal colony was absolutely humongous. This time of year the younger seals are learning to swim and getting ready to venture off on their own. And there was a lot of them. We also got to see an oyster farm floating off the shores. They use floating barrels to mark the oyster nets below. We experienced a wonderful level of hospitality on the ship. They brought a seal onto the ship and we had the opportunity to feed it. They also brought a pelican on board and we had the opportunity to take many photos with it. Megan even had the chance to feed the pelican and received a bit of a nip as a souvenir. They provided us with an early morning drink called Old Brown, a sort of sweet wine. They served us beer, water and sodas later on. Lastly, they served us food and champagne. We got to eat freshly shucked oysters, empanadas, and meatballs. Once we got back to the pier we contemplated taking the shuttle into town to go to the mall but we decided not to. Instead we enjoyed an early all aboard and got a chance to be on the ship when there was still many passengers on their excursions. We got to go to the Lido deck and spend some time with the children that came on board from the Bernhard Nordkamp Centre. This is after school program run by volunteers for unprivileged children. In 2013, when the world cruise was here, the children came on board and performed for the passengers as they did again this afternoon. Many of those children who are now grown up returned for the opportunity to perform again as well as new younger students who are currently enrolled in the school. They were like little kids in the candy store this afternoon. They were allowed to use the pool and eat at the buffet. We saw many a large bowl of ice cream in front of many smiling faces. The silent auction the ship had yesterday was to make a donation to this group. They also had a collection box for passengers to make cash donations. At the conclusion of their performance that Captain presented to them a check of close to $10,000 from the funds raised. They also sent the group off with 41 bags filled with necessities and school supplies also donated by passengers. It was a wonderful service opportunity and an amazing opportunity to make a huge difference in the lives of so many children so far from home. After the performance we had to go through immigration inspection a second time so we could get “stamped out” of Namibia. Tonight we had dinner with Gail and Marty in the Pinnacle Grill. Another wonder meal, fabulous conversation and even better company. I always enjoy our dinners with them so much. After dinner we headed up to the lido deck as they had a Biergarten Festival this evening. They had German-Styled beer, music and food. They were super creative in making large beer steins we think were filled with jello and topped with meringue to represent foaming beers. We had fun taking those photos. We stayed out till about 10:00pm when the music ended. Then we were home and into bed right after. We have two sea days ahead of now to rest and relax and catch up with all our friends.

Luderitz, Namibia

Today we were up early. We have immigration and passport inspection at 7:00am so we got up early so we could grab breakfast before they call for us to report. We grabbed a quick breakfast in the Lido and wouldn’t you know it as soon as we sat down with our food they called for our group. We took 10 minutes to inhale our food and headed to meet the immigration officers who are on the ship in the Main Dining Room. We got our passports stamped and then headed to the Main Stage to meet our excursion group at 7:30am. Today is a tender port so it always takes a little longer to get onto shore on these days. We headed to the pier and hopped into small buses that each sat around 15 people. We took a 15 minute drive to the ghost town of Kolmanskop. It is an old diamond mining town that the German’s colonized. It was originally a harbor town for other ships looking for shelter and supplies on the journey around the Cape of Good Hope. Within three years of being established it was flourishing. In March of 1908 the first diamond was discovered here. There was a railway worker who formerly worked in a diamond mine and his boss was a geologist. The railway worker brought the stone to his boss who was not sure what it was so he took it to be certified. But before the man would certify it he made a deal to profit from 20% of the value of the now known diamond. When the boss returned to the town he said nothing to anyone about what he had discovered. Instead he quietly bought up all the mining rights in the area and in May of 1908 diamond fever broke out. In the first 4 years of mining here they removed 5 million kilos of diamonds. At the time it represented 20% of the worlds diamonds. This town was known to have the highest income per capita in the world. The type of diamonds the discovered here were alluvial diamonds. These are river diamonds that flowed downstream from the original source of the diamonds, an earlier erupted volcano up stream. So as soon as theses types of diamonds are gone, they were all gone. By 1928 they found diamonds 6 times the size of the ones in Kolmanskop and the mining people and resources moved to Elizabeth Bay. By 1938 all mining in this area stopped. In 1956 when the hospital closed, the last of the families left and the town was abandoned. The town  lived less than 50 years. It had was overbuilt in anticipation of this becoming the next flourishing town but that never came to pass. The lavish town that was among the first in the world to have electricity, phones in every home, and even a form of air conditioning because the town was so wealthily there was nothing they couldn’t afford. There was even a bowling alley in the city center building. They even made their own ice for the towns people from fresh drinking water that was actually shipped here in wooden barrels from Cape Town. It also had the first X-ray in the southern hemisphere. When a miners two year contract was done before he and his family could leave the town they had to be x-rayed to ensure they weren’t smuggling any diamonds. All the building material used to build this town came from Europe. The hospital had a cellar in it and that is where they stored red wine because the doctor insisted that every patient receive a glass of red wine every day. Now that’s my type of doctor. After our guided tour we were given some free time to wander through the buildings independently with a stern moving to be careful as there are no safety standards here and many of the building are over 100 years old. There has been no upkeep and maintenance and as you can see from the photos, the buidlings are slowly being reclaimed by sand dunes around them. It made for an interesting and historical excursion for the day. On our way back through town we encounter a craftsman selling hand carved wooden statues. W also found a playground and Megan took the opportunity to be a little kid for a bit. There were a few children with the artisans and I had some South African candy with me so I was able to share it with the kids. We were back to the ship before noon today as there was not much else to see except for a small town that we opted not to explore. We spent our afternoon registering Megan for high school and doing her class selection for her freshman year. I am officially all caught up on my blogs as well. Today is Saint Patrick’s Day. So Happy wearing of the green to you all!! Tonight they had a lovely themed menu in the main dining room. We each enjoyed a traditional corned beef brisket entree complete with a cold Guinness beer for me. After dinner we came home and relaxed until just before 9:00pm. There was a Saint Patrick’s day party on the Lido deck around the pool this evening. We stayed for only a short while. They had a bar crawl this evening that I participated in with Mom on the 2020WC. I wasn’t feeling it tonight and we have a port day tomorrow that I have to get up and ready for tomorrow. It was neat seeing all the staff in green hats and beads helping to set the atmosphere of tonight’s celebration. I am finishing up this post, crawling into bed and hope to be fast asleep quickly. Enjoy your St Patrick’s Day everyone. Find a tradition that means some special to you and your family and make it happen!! Love and Hugs.

Sea Day

Good morning from the South Western side of the continent of Africa.  I slept in this morning till about 6:30 am and then I went to the gym. The sun was shining and it looked like it would be a beautiful day. Unfortunately by the time I got home and woke up Megan for the day the fog had rolled in and hung around throughout the day. We did get to hear the ships fog horn periodically throughout the day so that was cool. They had whole dragon fruit in the Neptune lounge when I grabbed my tea this morning so I grabbed one and we took it with us to the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast. They cut it up for us and it was a great addition to our breakfast. After breakfast we went to our Project Linus time. Megan turned in her second completed blanket today and got recognized for her work. After project Linus we went home where I spent time catching up on my blog posts. I’m almost there. Megan had tutoring at 12:30. I had acupuncture this afternoon as well. I ran into my masseuse and she was blessed by a visit from her family in Durban and they brought her some things from home. They brought her some fabric that she uses to make handbags, but she didn’t want them to bring it and it is now putting her over her weight limit for her luggage when she gets off soon, so she gave it to me. It is beautiful South African fabric with annuals printed on it. I look forward to having it made into something when I get home. They also had an auction on the ship today to benefit a school in Namibia, where we are going tomorrow. We picked up some glass jewelry pieces to give away later. Lastly we spent part of our day working on the bid sheets for our upcoming silent auction for Project Linus. They are all printed up and ready to go. We went to the dinning room for our 5:00 dinner time. After dinner I continued back with my blog catch up. The wifi has been very spotty today. It’s been pretty miserable actually. I had eloquently written a blog post and the system glitched and it was completely deleted. So I got to write it again. Megan went out and played cards for the first time in quite a while with  Gail and Marty.  She had a good time and got to catch up with our dear friends. We were up till about 11:00p which I am sure I will regret when the 6:30am alarm goes off tomorrow. We have an early morning, it is a tender port AND we have to do immigration inspection around 7:00am. It will make for a busy morning. Hope you all sleeping peacefully and that the storms have subsided in Ca!

Cape Town, South Africa (Day two of two)

We have been experiencing rough internet the last couple of day and I am having a true groundhog day experience as I am writing this post for the second time due to a technical glitch that cost me the whole post. So here I go…take two!

This morning we awoke in the same place we went to sleep last night which is a novelty still for us on this adventure. Since we stayed here overnight it also means our excursions can start earlier due to not needing to wait to go through customs and to be cleared for dis-embarkation. We were up at 6:45 am and dressed quickly. We headed to the Lido to grab a quick breakfast and then to the Rolling Stone lounge to meet our excursion group from Cruise Specialist. It was nice to see some fellow passengers we hadn’t seen in a while and catch up with our travel hosts. After some chaos due to a mechanical issue with a bus and a delay in our departure, we were on the road for a drive to the top of Chapman’s Peak. We stopped first at an outlook where we had a beautiful panoramic view of the Cape of Good Hope. There was beautiful white sand beaches and it was super windy. Glad I brought my brush with me today. We learned about Table Mountain and its history of once being at the bottom of the Sea. We weaved our way along a mountain side road around the back of Table Mountain. The drive was not for the weak of heart at all. We saw shack style home where locals lived and multimillion dollar homes just a couple of blocks away. The juxtaposition was an alarmingly extreme example of the separation of classes here. We even saw a community of homes where Oprah Winfrey currently owns a home. We headed next to Boulder Beach, home of a colony of African penguins. We got to see LOTS of penguins today. We saw parent with their babies, eggs waiting to be hatched, penguins playing hide and seek from their sand burrows and penguins splashing in the surf. This was a way better penguin experience than we had a few days ago. The hike in and out of the beach we were sand blasted from the sand and the wind on our faces. I wish I had had a mask to protect myself. After we enjoyed our time with our web footed friends we got back on the bus for some more scenic driving and on to our next destination Mount Nelson Hotel so we could indulge in the elegance of High Tea time. The food was phenomenal, we sampled a few different teas and the sweets were out of this world. It was a lovely property and I wish we had more time to explore the grounds. But since we were late we were rushed through our time both at tea and then to leave the hotel. This hotel was built in 1899 and it is rich with lavish history. If you get a chance check out the website and the photos of the grounds and the hotel. After tea time we took a scenic drive back through Cape Town on our way back to the ship. Some of the highlights of our drive were; the 2010 World Cup Soccer Stadium, Saint George’s Cathedral where Desmond Tutu first became a bishop, a slave lodge where 600 slave where made to sleep in extremely close quarters back to back, and City Hall where Nelson Mandela made his first speech after being freed from jail in 1990. There is a statue there depicting where he stood when he gave the speech. We also saw a brightly painted neighborhood of homes that were a joy to see. So colorfully done. Next, we headed back to the ship so we could grab our passports because we have to go through immigration and customs again before we are allowed to leave here this evening. But we weren’t ready to be done quite yet. When we were on the bus we observed a Ferrari dealership a couple of blocks from the ship so we had to stop by. We had hoped to buy some apparel from here, but sadly they did not sell any. We had a lovely time looking at their 2023 models in the showroom and a couple of classics they had for sale. The salesman was so nice to us and I will be sending an email to his boss praising his customer service and kindness. He was adamant we didn’t go home empty handed so he gave us his personal Ferrari keychain from his pocket to take home with us. It was WAY above and beyond and so sweet of him to do that for us. We headed back to the ship and presented our passports to be stamped and waited our turn to then get back on the ship. It was just past our seating time in the Main dining room and we weren’t hungry as we were still full from our tea time this afternoon so we headed to the Main Stage for this evening performance. I am SO glad we did. It was the best performance we have seen to date on this cruise. We were treated to a number of songs sang by the South African Youth Choir. There were a number of group performances as well as solos. They are one of the most sought after performance choirs in the country and I can totally understand why. They range in age from 15-25 and they are definitely an extremely talented group of young people. After the performance we headed to the Lido and we were delighted to see the choir group there excited to be eating from the buffet and having so many choices of things to eat. Think kids in a candy store. We had a lovely conversation with a choir member named Victoria. She and Megan became fast friends as they bonded over friendship and their commonalities. Victoria presented Megan with a friendship bracelet and Megan ran back to the cabin to grab her something to give in kind. It was a beautiful thing to watch these two young ladies from totally different parts of the world sharing this moment of kindness and generosity. I am a proud human and mom. It was the most wonderful way to end our time here in Cape Time. I couldn’t have scripted it better if I wanted to. This evening we will sail away from here and head north to Namibia. We will also cross over a line I am told is visible (during the day) where we will leave the Indian Ocean and will once again be in the Atlantic Ocean where we started this journey. But this trip is not yet at an end. We will head up north further into Europe before heading back to the US. I am grateful for my time here and look forward to sleeping in tomorrow as it is a sea day. Enjoy all the photos!!

Cape Town, South Africa (overnight)

Good morning from the most modern city in Africa. It was like looking out our window and seeing any major city, such as San Francisco this morning. They have public transportation, an established infrastructure, but still suffer even here from the power outages that take place multiple times a day and last 2-3 hours. Today we were originally supposed to do a daytime safari drive. We decided we had had enough Safari from our amazing visit to Kruger National Park so we cancelled our original excursion and rescheduled for an excursion called Gin and Jewels. We got up this morning and went and grabbed our usual port day breakfast at the Lido. Then, we met our excursion group at the Main Stage at 8:15am. We were an extremely small group again this morning. There was only seven of us in total. Our first stop was to the Woodstock Gin distillery in downtown Cape Town. We sampled three different gins including their awarding winning original, tangerine & ginger, and Bramble berry & Purple Lotus. We sampled them each separately and then added tonic and lime to the original, tonic and an orange slice to the tangerine one, and lastly tonic and a strawberry to the bramble berry one. They were all delicious in their own right and then even better with the accompaniments. And who can complain when you are drinking cocktail before 11:00am in the morning. Good thing we ate breakfast. It was a delightful morning and having a small group made for an intimate setting and great conversation. After Gin tasting we had some time to kill so we had about 30 minutes to go shopping in a local artisan area right next to the distillery. We got watch a man hand carving a wooden figurine. Megan I picked up a couple souvenirs. I found a beautiful silver ring with the “tree of life” on it. It reminded me of the Marula trees we saw in the bush in Kruger National Park so it will serve as a lovely piece to commemorate my trip. After shopping we boarded back on our bus and drove to Prins and Prins Diamond Merchants. This historial building, called the Huguenot House, is in downtown and can be a museum in its own right. It was built in the late 1700’s and has a rich history. The basement of this of this historical build houses a Gem Museum. We had the opportunity to learn about the gemstones, diamonds, gold and platinum that are all mined here and int he nearby surrounding areas. This jeweler specializes primarily in customer designed pieces and not mass production. They have designers and artisans on sight that are ready to help you design and create any piece you can imagine. We actually got to watch five of the artisans at work each creating a custom piece for a client. After the tour we were served a lovely snack in the courtyard of this beautiful home. We were served cheeses, crackers, fruits and champagne. Then….we were turned loose to shop!! They had a separate area where they display some estate jewelry and Megan fell in love with a lovely Jade ring in a half carved gold basket that is over 100 years old. I found lovely pair of hoop earrings. Their prices were extremely reasonable and we felt like we were treated very well and now have some special pieces mined, made and sold all in South Africa. Megan’s ting was too small to fit her so they offered to resize it for her. So we sent our excursion group back to the ship and decided to Uber back later. They took less than an hour to enlarge her ring and the best part was, we got to watch the entire process. Megan was fascinated to see how they create the piece of gold to fill the gap and then used a jewelers torch to melt small piece of golf to solder the new pieces together. It was a memorable experience for sure. When we got back to the ship we dropped off our purchases and then heading back off to catch the shuttle to the Vitoria and Alfred Waterfront Shopping center. WOW!! What a place this is. Multistoried, multiple buildings, over 80 restaurants and more shopping than you could need. We found a build a bear within a toy shop and Megan made a pink frog. We visited H&M and a Made in Africa store. We also stumbled onto a wonderful South African Cuisine restaurant called Karibu. We had a beautiful table overlooking the Marina and Table mountain. They served many local meats here and we wanted to sample as many as possible so inquired to our server how to go about doing that. He informed me there was a dish not listed not on menu called the Safari platter so we went for it. So we started our meal with a half dozen oysters and a Carpaccio combination of Crocodile, Springbok and Ostrich. Our main course consisted of cooked Springbok, Kudu, Imapala, Beef, Venison sausage, Warthog sausage, and an Ostrich filet. It was definitely reminiscent of Fogo De Chao and we were in a meat coma by the end of our meal. I had a nice glass of South African Chardonnay and it was a wonderful way to end our day here in Cape Town. We took the shuttle back to the ship and went pretty much right to bed. Since tonight is an overnight we will wake up still here in Cape Town in the morning. It also means we have an early excursion tomorrow since we don’t have to wait our the process of the ship cleaning customs. Tomorrow is our first excursion with a wonderful travel company Cruise Specialist as well. We are looking forward to seeing some of our fellow passengers and our wonderful hosts.

Day Three of Three Kruger National Park. Flight to Durban, South Africa.

Up before the sun again this morning. Not a routine I like, or am I used to it. Especially since we had such late evenings. I usually go to bed earlier when I know I have to wake up early. But that’s not an option, so away we go.

We sat in a field as the sun was rising and a herd of elephants approached us for their morning meal. We just sat in the jeep in silence and watched momma and babies. We listened to their breaths and watched them living life as if we weren’t even there. They have no fear of humans and went about their business free from care. Just a peaceful time. I was emotional moved to tears at the grandness of all of this and in the fact that this experiences is coming to an end. We almost had to pinch ourselves it felt so unreal. I feel the sun on my face. I smell the fresh grass as it was ripped from the earth by the elephants trunks. I feel the gentle breeze blowing across the land. The morning dew is still sparkling on the grass because it is so early in the morning. And just like that the elephants moved on. I will never forget that 30 minutes of time ever.

We went to visit the water buck herd we saw yesterday. After the leopard attack we wonder if the calf survived or not. It had puncture wounds on both sides of its neck. Its mother was licking and cleaning it’s wounds after the incident. And the baby had a slight limp as well.  We never did see it.

Lazarus scouting out and then forged a road for us to travel down so we could have our morning coffee at the river side. So tranquil and quiet. Occasionally we could hear the elephants in the distance up river. We finished out the rest our last animal drive once again just enjoying all the beauty of the surrounds of this majestic park. There are three lion prides in the Jock Safari area of Kruger Park which make up 6,000 square miles of land. By the time we completed our final animal drive today we had seen lions from all three prides during our time here. Once we got back to the lodge we had breakfast and then headed to our cabins to finishing packing up. We settled up our bill, tipped the staff and our ranger generously and loaded back in the bus with Edward who drove us into the Lodge two days ago. We did some final sight seeing on the way out of the park and got to see more lioness, a hedgehog family complete with babies, hippopotamuses, white rhinoceroses and more birds. We had a 2.5 hour drive to the airport from the Kruger National Park. They gave us all a boxed lunch and we didn’t even touch it. We’re so full. When we arrived at the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport we got our tickets and then had about 45 minutes to shop. We purchased some souvenirs and some snacks. A couple firsts for today; Megan’s first flight ever on a propeller plane. I think I had been on one before but can’t say with 100% certainty. AND our first charter flight ever. 69 cruise ship passengers convened at the airport from various places around South Africa and we were the only passengers on the plane. And guess what, they fed us….AGAIN. Still not hungry but I forced myself to take some snacks to go. Smoked flavor chips, candy bars, and billtong jerkey. We bought Cashews and macadamia nuts grown in Africa at the airport so our snack stash will be well stocked when we get home. I can wait to get home. We STINK. Between the musty smell from the lodge, the dust and dirt from the bush, the layers of insect repellant and the open fires last night at dinner we smell like we have been camping for a week. When we landed at Durban airport a tour operator was there waiting for us to escort us to a private coach for the 45 minute ride back to the ship. We opted to dedicate our evening back the ship to sending out ALL the clothing we had brought back with us from the Safari. We took really long showers. We ordered in room service for dinner so we could stay in our cozies. We have some sleep to catch up on. Tomorrow we are supposed to port at East London, South Africa but the weather is not looking favorable so we will know tomorrow whether or not we’ll be able to get off the ship. We will not be sad to have a sea day and time to rest and relax. I can not express in words how wonderful this experience was for Megan and I. It exceeded any and all expectations for what I thought a Safari in Africa would be. We saw more animals then I could have imagined, experienced five star service and hospitality, we never felt unsafe, and it was a completely immerse experience. (After note; we were in bed and asleep probably by 7:00pm and slept about 12 hours straight through. I truly hope you have enjoyed sharing this experience and seeing all our photos.)!